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Washington, D.C.—The Senate Appropriations Committee has voiced its approval for strengthening federal telework efforts when it approved an amendment to the war supplemental funding bill to expand the program.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), who has been leading the effort to expand federal telework programs and opportunities, welcomed the Appropriations Committee action, taken by voice vote on an amendment offered by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).

“This is a very positive sign in the continuing effort to secure comprehensive federal telework legislation this year,” the NTEU leader said. “In so many ways, including increased employee morale and productivity, telework is a proven benefit to federal workers, their agencies and their communities.”

The Stevens amendment added to the supplemental funding measure the language of S. 1000, a telework bill approved last fall by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. That bill is pending; it mirrors other legislation—H.R. 4106—approved in March that would require agencies to develop a program allowing employees to telework at least 20 percent of every two-week work period.

These measures also would designate a senior-level employee to serve as a telework managing officer, and would require agencies to incorporate telework into their continuing operational planning.

NTEU has long been in the forefront of federal telework efforts, and has negotiated programs with a number of agencies. Its effort with the Patent and Trademark Office involving trademark attorneys often is held as the model for the federal sector.

Not every program is as successful as that one, however, President Kelley noted. The most-often cited obstacle to successful implementation and operation of a telework program, she said, is continuing mid-level management resistance to the idea that employees can and will be productive at a work site other than their office.

“Our experience has been that management reluctance fades as they see the success of telework and the positive impact it has on agency missions,” Kelley said, “and that is why congressional action to expand and institutionalize these programs is so important.”